This invention relates generally to card games and, more particularly, to an educational card game that helps children learn the alphabet at an early age.
Children who have gained familiarity with the alphabet prior to beginning their formal education have a distinct advantage over those who have not. Prior art letter games designed to be educational are not at the same time fun, since they are generally either difficult or too boring to capture the attention of children at an age that would benefit them in early stage letter and word learning. Many letter games involve boards, numbers, and pictures or other such pieces that distract from the intended teaching purpose of the game. These games typically involve very complex rules that discourage children before they even begin play.
Several instructional card games for teaching children the alphabet are known in the prior art. Exemplary of such card games are those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,524,899 and 5,772,212 to Haqedorn, in which a deck of 52 cards is apportioned equally into two suit decks of 26 cards each, all letters of the alphabet appearing once in each suit, along with a graphical cue to assist the player in identifying that letter. Another such game is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,432 to Dwyer, which employs two decks of 26 alphabet cards each, together with four wild cards, for a total of 56 cards that are used to play a word spelling game. Yet another such game is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,043 to Bitner, which employs a deck of 104 cards used to play games in which "sets" or "runs" of alphabetic characters are the objects thereof. Another such game is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,199 to Hahn, which employs a deck of 60 cards used to play a word forming game. Another such game is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,175 to Quatrino, which employs three color groups of 43 cards each used to form words. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,513 to Freeley et al. describes the use of four suits of 26 diamond-shaped cards each that are used for playing word games as well as conventional card games.
The card game of the present invention is advantageous in that it can be played and enjoyed by both children and adults, regardless of differences in age and learning ability. Moreover, it is simple enough to generate interest in children at an early age, yet challenging enough at its higher levels of play so as to maintain interest in older children.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a deck of cards consists of one hundred eighteen cards, each card being associated with a single letter of the alphabet that is displayed on the face side of the card. A desired graphic design serves to decorate the reverse side of each card. Varying numbers of the cards are associated with the different letters of the alphabet. Scoring involves only simple addition, which is educational in itself. Scoring points are earned by players as they form sets, runs, and words with the cards. Bonus words can be specified at the beginning of play to provide additional scoring incentive.